Because you never know what trivial bit of information may ultimately prove to be vitally important.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The most popular chord progression in pop music

I was already conscious of this. You might want to not watch this video if you choose to remain a more passive music listener, because after this you'll probably at least smirk quietly in recognition any time you hear a song like this.

The chord progression in question is I-V-vi-IV, that is, Do-Mi-So to So-Ti-Re to La-Do-Mi to Fa-La-Do and back again. The upper case Roman numerals indicate a major chord, the lower case a minor chord.

I've had a sort of sub-genre of songs like this in my head for a long time. Yes, sometimes I'm listening to a song and I think, "Oh, this is one of those one-five-six-four songs." Almost as popular is a very similar progression, I-vi-IV-V.

Anyway, this video is a great demonstration of what seems to be an extremely popular, if not the most popular chord progression in pop music.

2 comments:

It reminds me of the time I explained the 12-bar blues progression to my wife. She'd never noticed it before, but once I showed her how it worked and played some examples for her, she realized she'd been hearing it all over the place.

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